Ex-Chopard Singapore accountant jailed for embezzling $11.2m

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Aug 17, 2016

An ex-Chopard Singapore accounting manager has been sentenced to 15 years jail for siphoning $11.2 million from her employer over a period of six and a half years.

Chew Siew Lang, 53, took most of the money using erasable ink to write on cheques made out to Chopard's suppliers for fake transactions, reported the Strait Times.

After receiving the required two signatures - Chew herself was authorised to sign Chopard's cheques - she replaced the payee's names with her own, the court heard.

The offences took place between January 2006 and August 2012. Chew spent around $2.1 million on 4D lottery bets and wrote 76 cheques (ranging between $20,000 and $68,000) to a Singapore Pools retailer to gamble the money, according to local media.

In December last year, she pleaded guilty in the Singapore High Court to 56 charges - six counts of criminal breach of trust, 30 counts of falsification of accounts and 20 counts of using the benefits of her criminal conduct.

Chopard discovered the siphoning after being tipped off by the local Commercial Affairs Department. The Geneva-based firm fired Chew in August 2012 and two months later, filed a civil suit against her. So far, only $197,000 has been recovered.